Tokyo (AP)— Some Korean residents of Japan sympathetic to North Korea are likely to travel to South Korea later this year to visit their hometowns and meet relatives, an official said Friday.
Discussions about such a visit have been held with South Korean officials, said Cho Il-nam, spokesman for the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan.
Cho said the association has been talking with the South Korean Embassy in Japan and government officials in Seoul, the South’s capital.
Though no dates have been set, Cho said it is hoped the trip will take place “by the end of this year.”
The discussions follow a July 3l joint statement issued after Cabinet-level talks between North and South Korea.
The document calls for Seoul to allow the estimated l80,000 pro-North Korean residents in Japan to visit South Korea. Many of them or their ancestors are natives of South Korea.
They are among the 700,000 ethnic Koreans, many of their ancestors forcibly brought here by Japan’s wartime military as slave laborers, living here. Most ethnic Koreans here support South Korea.
The Seoul government so far has banned pro-Pyongyang residents from visiting their hometowns in the South.
Following the success of limited reunions between family members on the divided Korean Peninsula, Seoul has come under public pressure to expand the program.
Cho said his association is currently asking members about their interest in visiting South Korea for reunions with relatives. He said the number of participants is expected to be as many as “several thousand.”
The association hopes to send a group of about l00 pro-Pyongyang residents for a 4-5 day visit for each reunion.
Relations between North and South Korea have improved dramatically since a historic June summit betweeen their leaders in Pyongyang, the North’s capital.
The two sides fought the Korean War from l950-53 and their border is the world’s last Cold War frontier. The June summit is seen as providing the best chance yet for peace on the peninsula.